WWE Stomping Grounds
Stomping Grounds was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event and WWE Network event produced by WWE for their Raw and SmackDown brands. It took place on June 23, 2019, at the Tacoma Dome in Tacoma, Washington. Nine matches were contested at the event including one on the pre-show. In the main event, Seth Rollins defeat Baron Corbin to retain the Universal Championship with Lacey Evans as the special guest referee. Other prominent matches saw Kofi Kingston defeated Dolph Ziggler by escaping the cage to retain the WWE Championship in a steel cage match, Ricochet defeated Samoa Joe to win the United States Championship, and Roman Reigns defeated Drew McIntyre. Storylines The show will include matches that result from scripted storylines, where wrestlers portrayed villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters in scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the Raw and SmackDown brands, while storylines are produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Monday Night Raw and SmackDown Live. At Money in the Bank, Bayley won the women's Money in the Bank ladder match and later that night cashed in the contract on Charlotte Flair to win the SmackDown Women's Championship. On the June 4 episode of SmackDown, Flair competed in a triple threat match against Carmella and Raw's Alexa Bliss, who appeared via the wild card rule, in order to earn a rematch against Bayley for the title at Stomping Grounds. Bliss, however, won the match, thus Bliss earned the title match . At WrestleMania 35, Roman Reigns defeated Drew McIntyre. Reigns was then drafted to SmackDown in the Superstar Shake-up, while McIntyre joined forces with Shane McMahon, but lost another match to Reigns by disqualification when Reigns appeared on the May 6 episode of Raw via the wild card rule. At Super ShowDown, Shane defeated Reigns thanks to a Claymore from McIntyre while the referee was incapacitated. Afterwards, another match between Reigns and McIntyre was scheduled for Stomping Grounds. At Money in the Bank, Becky Lynch defended both the Raw and SmackDown Women's Championships. She retained the Raw Women's Championship against Lacey Evans, who in turn caused Lynch to lose the SmackDown Women's Championship to Charlotte Flair. After more feuding on Raw, another match between the two for the Raw Women's Championship was scheduled for Stomping Grounds. At Super ShowDown, Seth Rollins retained the Universal Championship against Baron Corbin after Corbin got into an argument with the referee, allowing Rollins to roll-up the distracted Corbin for the win. After the match, Corbin attacked Rollins with the "End of Days" and a title rematch was scheduled for Stomping Grounds. On the following Raw, Corbin revealed that WWE officials allowed him to choose a special guest referee for the match. Corbin was going to choose Elias, but he was brutally attacked by Rollins, who followed suit and continued to attack Corbin's other potential choices: EC3 and Eric Young on Raw, and The B-Team (Curtis Axel and Bo Dallas) on SmackDown. Corbin's decision on the special guest referee remained unknown before Stomping Grounds, but the steel chair will be suspended. At Super ShowDown, Kofi Kingston defeated Dolph Ziggler to retain the WWE Championship thanks to interference from fellow New Day member Xavier Woods. Following the match, an irate Ziggler claimed he would have beaten Kingston had it not been for Woods and then challenged Kingston to a steel cage match for the title at Stomping Grounds and Kingston accepted. On the June 11 episode of SmackDown, The New Day (Big E, Kofi Kingston, and Xavier Woods) defeated the team of Dolph Ziggler, Kevin Owens, and Sami Zayn, the latter appearing via the wild card rule. On the following Raw, wild card guests The New Day defeated the team of Owens (also appearing via the wild card rule), Zayn, and Baron Corbin in a two out of three falls match. A tag team match between New Day's Big E and Woods against Owens and Zayn was then scheduled for Stomping Grounds. On the June 11 episode of 205 Live, a fatal four-way match between Akira Tozawa, Oney Lorcan, Humberto Carrillo, and Drew Gulak occurred to determine the number one contender against Tony Nese for the WWE Cruiserweight Championship at Stomping Grounds. The match, however, ended with both Gulak and Tozawa scoring a double pin. The following week, 205 Live General Manager Drake Maverick decided that Nese would defend the title against both Gulak and Tozawa in a triple threat match. On the June 10 episode of Raw, United States Champion Samoa Joe was a guest on The Miz's "Miz TV". Then Braun Strowman, Bobby Lashley, Ricochet and Cesaro came out and interrupted them. A fatal five-way match between Strowman, Lashley, Ricochet, Cesaro and Miz was scheduled for the following Raw with the winner facing Joe for the United States Championship at Stomping Grounds, which won by Ricochet. After SmackDown Tag Team Champions Daniel Bryan and Rowan berated the SmackDown tag team division on the May 28 episode of SmackDown, Heavy Machinery (Otis and Tucker) interrupted and challenged Bryan and Rowan to a title match, which was accepted but for a later time. On the June 11 episode, Bryan and Rowan were set to have a title unification match with the kayfabe Yolo County Tag Team Champions, a couple of "local" wrestlers with cardboard belts. Heavy Machinery came out before the match and accused Bryan and Rowan of avoiding their challenge. Bryan said that Heavy Machinery needed to earn the opportunity and had them instead face the enhancement talent, who Heavy Machinery quickly defeated. Bryan and Rowan were then scheduled to defend the SmackDown Tag Team Championship against Heavy Machinery at Stomping Grounds. Aftermath The following night on Raw, a brawl broke out between Universal Champion Seth Rollins, Raw Women's Champion Becky Lynch, Baron Corbin, and Lacey Evans. This led to a last chance winner takes all mixed tag team extreme rules match for both the Universal and Raw Women's championships being scheduled for Extreme Rules. Roman Reigns faced Shane McMahon and Drew McIntyre in a handicap match. Shane and McIntyre dominated Reigns until The Undertaker came to his aid, setting up a no holds barred tag team match at Extreme Rules. On SmackDown, Dolph Ziggler faced WWE Champion Kofi Kingston in a two out of three falls match in order to be inserted into the championship match at Extreme Rules, but was unsuccessful. Nikki Cross apologized to Alexa Bliss, feeling that it was her fault that Bliss lost. On SmackDown, wild card guest Cross defeated Bayley to earn Bliss a rematch for the SmackDown Women's Championship at Extreme Rules. On 205 Live, Tony Nese defeated Akira Tozawa to earn a rematch against Drew Gulak for the WWE Cruiserweight Championship at Extreme Rules. Heavy Machinery (Otis and Tucker) earned another opportunity for the SmackDown Tag Team Championship at Extreme Rules by defeating the team of Kevin Owens and Dolph Ziggler. Results Other on-screen personnel See also * List of WWE pay-per-view events Category:World Wrestling Entertainment pay-per-view events Category:2019 Pay-Per-View Events